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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25275055">the sunset is most beautiful after a storm</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/unevalentine/pseuds/unevalentine'>unevalentine</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Beach, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Day At The Beach, F/M, Modern Westeros, Theonsa Challenge, july 2020 theonsa challenge, the beach</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-07-15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-07-15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-05 08:34:47</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,162</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25275055</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/unevalentine/pseuds/unevalentine</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Theon turns to look at Sansa, shifting his weight. And suddenly, with a lurch—his face goes out of focus, too close to hers. Their eyes meet, wide with the same surprise. The rain lashes their umbrella and pelts the sand by their feet. The world outside of them doesn’t exist. This is all there is—sea-green eyes, aquamarine, and a breath, held in anticipation.</p><p>Written for the July 2020 Theonsa Challenge. Prompt: "The Beach."</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Theon Greyjoy/Sansa Stark</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>26</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Theonsa Challenge</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>the sunset is most beautiful after a storm</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>I actually already wrote a beach-themed Theonsa fanfic, called <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/19216723">"Freedom in the Ocean of In-Between"</a>. Check it out! It's a lot longer and more developed.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Close enough to touch, if she were brave enough. Close enough to kiss his sea-salt lips. Sansa sits next to Theon under an umbrella on a beach in the pouring rain. He radiates heat beside her. She longs to lean into that heat, let it wrap around her and bring her to glory.</p><p>        	But Sansa isn’t brave enough. She’s never needed to be. For as long as she can remember, she’s never had to fight her own battles—why would she, when she had her family to fight for her? She’s a coward in all the ways that count, and she hates herself for that. She hates herself for every bad decision, every fucked-up mistake she’s ever made—all because she was too fucking scared to do the right thing…to do anything…</p><p>        	Theon breaks the silence with a throaty <em>hmm.</em></p><p>        	“I’m sorry I dragged you out here, Sans. I thought for sure the clouds would clear. Don’t hate me too much, okay?”</p><p>   	 	Sansa glances at him out of the corner of her eyes.</p><p>        	“I could never hate you.”</p><p>        	A glimmer of a smile on Theon’s lips.</p><p>        	“I’ll make it up to you. I promise.”</p><p>        	“And how do you plan to do that?”</p><p>        	“Well…” Theon draws out the end of the word. “You want to see the Manderly Sisters, don’t you?” Sansa nods. “I know Robb doesn’t want you to go to the Wolf’s Den. I could take him out that night—distract him. How does that sound?”</p><p>        	Sansa shakes her head. “You’ll have to do better than that.”</p><p>        	“Alright,” Theon laughs, “then I’ll take you there myself. I do have a car, you know. And I’m not scared of Robb.”</p><p>        	“Yes, you are,” Sansa teases. “You’re probably the <em>most </em>afraid of him.”</p><p>        	The rain fills the silence between them.</p><p>        	“Maybe you’re right,” Theon says after a while, the levity gone from his voice.</p><p>        	Sansa turns to look at him, cataloguing the details of his face in profile: the crooked slope of his nose, having been broken more than once; the sandy, salt-woven waves of his hair, which could do with a trim; the high cheekbones and the light stubble on a fine, firm jaw. For once, he isn’t smiling. He looks as if he has the whole world on his mind, and he doesn’t know how to make sense of it.</p><p>        	Theon turns to look at Sansa, shifting his weight. And suddenly, with a lurch—his face goes out of focus, too close to hers. Their eyes meet, wide with the same surprise. The rain lashes their umbrella and pelts the sand by their feet. The world outside of them doesn’t exist. This is all there is—sea-green eyes, aquamarine, and a breath, held in anticipation.</p><p>        	Theon’s lips part. He looks at her with a hunger that reaches deep beneath her skin to the heart of her. Sansa would let him devour her. In this moment, held under his spell, she is weightless. She is a woman being born.</p><p>        	So this is how it feels to fall…into everything she ever wanted and everything she ever feared.  She lets herself fall. There is nothing to do but fall.</p><p>        	Theon kisses Sansa under an umbrella on a beach in the pouring rain. And they don’t say anything for a long time.</p><p>        	(A lick of a tongue. <em>I want you. </em>A bruising kiss. <em>I’m yours. </em>A touch that ignites the flames of desire. <em>I never want to let you go.</em>)</p><p>~~~</p><p>        	The rain has stopped, and the clouds have cleared. The sun sits, glorious, at the edge of sky and sea. With their limbs tangled up together, Sansa and Theon sit on the main lifeguard chair, high above the empty beach. Sansa’s head rests on Theon’s shoulder. Her long red hair streams over his arm, catching sparks of golden light from the setting sun. He’s caught magic in his hands, and he doesn’t know how he got so lucky. He’s never been lucky before—except once, when he met a boy named Robb.</p><p>        	The luckiest things in his life all seem to be named Stark. Theon doesn’t know how to feel about that. But it seems Theon doesn’t know much of anything these days. He’s learned to ride the waves as best he can.</p><p>        	Sansa gasps as the sun begins to sink below the horizon.</p><p>        	“Theon, look! It’s so beautiful.”</p><p>        	He looks at the setting sun, then he looks at her, and then he can’t look away.</p><p>        	“You’re more beautiful,” he murmurs.</p><p>        	Theon runs his thumb over the freckles on her face, now flooding with color.</p><p>        	“You can’t make me blush. It’s unfair—I’m a redhead.”</p><p>        	“Are you? I didn’t notice.”</p><p>        	Sansa rolls her eyes, about to retort, when his thumb brushes across her lips, then down her chin. He tilts her face up and leans in to kiss her. She melts into his touch—like fire in his veins, burning him up. He would die a thousand times if he could never give this up.</p><p>        	When she lets out a breathy sigh, arching her back and pressing her chest to his, Theon’s hands clutch at her hips. “Fuck,” he groans. “You’re killing me, Sans.”</p><p>        	“Is…that a…suggestion?” Sansa pants in between kisses.</p><p>        	Theon laughs.“You <em>are </em>a wildcat, aren’t you?”</p><p>        	He pulls her further onto his lap and sucks tenderly at her neck. She mewls and claws at his shoulders. Adrenaline fills his body with the sense that he could take on the whole world right now, and win.</p><p>        	Suddenly, an annoyed voice blares: “GET OFF THE CHAIR! IT’S FOR LIFEGUARDS ONLY!”</p><p>        	Startled, Sansa and Theon turn to see a truck parked in the sand, with a beefy man standing up in the truck bed, holding a megaphone.</p><p>        	“YES, YOU RANDY WANKS. GET OFF THE CHAIR!”</p><p>        	Laughing in disbelief, Sansa and Theon fumble to climb down onto the safety of the beach, limbs still buzzing with desire and adrenaline.</p><p>        	The man with the megaphone yells one more time: “THE BEACH IS CLOSED. THIS IS A FAMILY-FRIENDLY ENVIRONMENT. PLEASE LEAVE IMMEDIATELY.”</p><p>        	Still laughing, Sansa and Theon gather up their belongings, before fleeing to Theon’s beat-up old car. Inside, they look at each other and exclaim, at the same time, “Randy wanks!” They dissolve into laughter again.</p><p>        	Theon comes back to himself first. The last light of day is soft on Sansa’s face, glowing with delight. Theon interrupts her laughter with a searing kiss. He pulls back and looks at her, looks at her, looks at her.</p><p>        	“Sansa Stark. You know I love you, right?” It’s the easiest thing he’s ever said, and the truest.</p><p>        	“I do now.” Her eyes shine. Moments pass. She takes a deep breath, closing her eyes: “I love you too.”</p><p>        	“Alright then.” Theon’s face feels like it might split open from the force of his grin. “That’s settled.”</p><p>        	He leans in to kiss her again—until the world ends, until every life is shed—again, and again, and again…</p>
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